There is a commercial need for novel surfactants with desirable properties such as low foaming, effective oily soil removal, performance in cold water, compatibility with other ingredients in a cleaning formula, mildness to skin, and a favorable environmental and safety profile.
A common trialkylamine hydrophobe used to make surfactants is dimethylalkylamine, made from C12 and C14 fatty alcohols reacted with dimethylamine, sometimes referred to as dimethyl laurylamine, or DIMLA. Neither DIMLA, its trialkylamine intermediate or the surfactants made from it contain branching.
Certain petrochemical detergent alcohols can also be used as surfactant hydrophobes. The most common synthetic detergent alcohols are produced by ethylene oligomerization, for instance, according to the Shell Higher Olefin Process (SHOP) process or the Ziegler alcohol process. Olefins can also be obtained from a Fischer-Tropsch process out of synthesis gas. The processing of producing detergent alcohols adds considerably to energy and facilities usage and consequently to product cost. Also, the resulting hydrophobes are typically over 85% linear.
Certain mixtures of C14 branched hydrophobes have also been described with some of the hydrophobe mixture containing a single branch point. When mixtures of hydrophobes are used to make surfactants, the individual hydrophobes in the mixture are not known to perform as well as the mixtures.
There remains a need in the industry for novel compositions which can be used to produce novel surfactants with desirable properties, for example, low foaming, mildness to skin, effective oily soil and/or stain removal (especially in cold water), high solubility in water, no gelling, ease of formulation, compatibilization or stabilization of other ingredients in a formula, retention of good hydrophobicity compared to linear hydrophobes, tolerance of extreme pH, antimicrobial activity, and/or a favorable environmental and safety profile. There also remains a need in the industry for effective reactants and processes to make branched surfactants and corresponding surfactant intermediates with fewer reaction byproducts, fewer reaction steps, and/or reduced reaction solvent(s).